Momentum

Ubuntu Media Productions provided video documentation of the Minneapolis Momentum training facilitated by Ayni Institute and Black Lives Matter Minneapolis for people of color by people of color.

The Momentum model merges the traditions of mass protest and structure-based organizing to create a new tradition of organizing in the United States. Following a decade of research by organizer Paul Engler (of the Center for the Working Poor), the Momentum Core Team came together to offer the first pilot training of this material in June 2014. Since then, the demand for this training has grown exponentially, and in just one year our team of highly-committed volunteers has trained over 300 people.

Ayni Institute and Black Lives Matter Minneapolis were finishing up the morning on the final day of the training on November 15 when the news broke about Jamar Clark. During the last hours of that training, Black Lives Matters Minneapolis organizers were applying momentum concepts to their work that would take place later that day — the occupation of the Fourth Precinct.